Buying Playmation Marvel Avengers starter pack can be cheaper by using promotion code at Disneystore.com today. Disneystore.com is now offering Playmation for both starter pack and special hero smart figure. Repulsor gear puts you in the center of action. Accept on board missions with help from J.A.R.V.I.S. sneak, dodge and blast your way past the enemy. Level up to earn new powers and abilities. You can also download Avengersnet app by open your direct link to the avengers network to track your battle stats and see where the avengers need you most. Plus, download new missions for your gear to keep the heroics going. Also, ask parents first! These are connected toys with power activators, you’ll be able to target and take out the enemy. But be careful, they’ll be blasting back. Want more action? Bring Villains and heroes into the battle with smart figures. Level-up to earn their abilities, and defeat Villains to access new battlegrounds and additional missions.

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Playmation Marvel’s Avengers Starter Pack and receive a Free Smart Figure Promotion Restrictions: * Pre-Order offer is valid 07/07/2015 to 10/03/2015. Offer is valid only as part of pre-sale redemption transaction at DisneyStore.com and select Disney Store retail locations in the U.S. and Canada. Smart Figure price will be discounted automatically when added to bag as part of a Playmation Marvel’s Avengers Starter Pack purchase. Some restrictions apply. Limit one Smart Figure per Guest, per Playmation Starter Pack pre-order. Selection may vary. While supplies last.

Whether you like the ironman store or not, the fact remains that Marvel’s ensemble cast deserves a better gaming outing than Battle For Earth and Playmation is one of the best role play games with wearable tech that will let you to interact physically with the story of the games. THQ was in the process of readying just such a game when it was taken by Tak’s great Juju power, and the plug was pulled before the game could be finished. While it didn’t look amazing in the early leaked footage, it certainly showed potential – individual characters had their own move sets and the potential for a Left 4 Dead-style co-op experience was evident even at that early stage. Sadly, the project would have taken significant amounts of both time and money to fully develop – both commodities THQ unfortunately didn’t have in its twilight hours. First-person play was looking interesting across all characters, even if it would most likely have taken a few years to iterate on and get right. Balancing the skills of Cap and Hulk in a first-person game is a task so tough that we wouldn’t wish it on our worst enemies, so we can’t say that we’re surprised that this project died – we’re just disappointed. The ironman : Acclaim picked up Valiant Comics for a cool $65 million in 1996 and used this generic brawler as a way for the publishing house’s relatively unknown hero to share some screen time with a big Marvel name. Like with Hulk’s early PS1 outing, this proved to be an anachronism in an age where 3D was becoming king, and proof that marketing a character as a pure palette swap of a more familiar hero isn’t the best way to sell a ‘new’ superhero. We’re not entirely sure how an origin story about a man making a mech suit from junk he found in a cave ever actually became a videogame, but it did. Cue a bunch of very boring and very brown missions that did little to help the gaming renown of one of Marvel’s most colourful and charismatic heroes, and instead just further helped cement the notion that all licensed games were junk. Not exactly Sega’s finest hour. Another dodgy movie tie-in, and one not helped by the fact that the film it was based on was pretty poor to begin with. Iron Man and War Machine are effectively interchangeable here, and neither is as much fun to zoom around blasting stuff with as they should be. Remember that scene in the movie where Tony suits up while drunk? Yeah, this is the gaming equivalent of that mess. Skylanders made a billion dollars, huh? Cute. Imagine what you could do with the same format and the Marvel license. Only you don’t have to imagine, because it’s a real thing that actually happened – Disney’s smart use of comic properties (along with the expected classic IPs) made this Marvel-centric sequel interesting to explore, not least because the collection of unlockables and items offered even more ways to enjoy some all-time classics.

Avengers assemble! Then disassemble, and then reassemble yourselves in a different form in order to help us progress through the campaign of TT Games’ other outing. At least that’s what’s we’re expecting from this adventure, if past form is anything to go by. Placing you in the variously colored boots of the titular hero squad, both the 2012 film and forthcoming sequel Age Of Ultron will be covered by the ongoings here. It’s the natural next step in the wake of the excellent Lego Marvel Super Heroes, and the movie itself is getting just a tiny bit of buzz at the moment. In it, Tony Stark awakens a dormant self-aware, self-teaching AI… which promptly decides that people just ain’t no good and need a thorough eradicating. Cue explosions, fist fights, and a special effects budget that would dwarf the GDP of most developing countries. We’ll have more for you in upcoming issues – until then, set phasers to ‘stun’. Wait, no… IT’S A KNOWN problem across all of gaming, but superheroes are notoriously hard to get right in interactive form. Offer players too much power and it’s impossible to present a satisfying challenge, but offer too little and you fundamentally miss the point of playing as a superhero. Only a handful of releases have genuinely managed to strike this delicate balance in 30+ years of trying, but those that did stand as perfect examples of just how much fun daft costumes and over-thetop abilities can be when the developer gets everything right. Presented here is three decades’ worth of Avengers gaming goodness (and badness), broken down by which of the current Hollywood roster made appearances. No prizes for guessing which hero has had the most starring roles (spoilers: it isn’t Hawkeye)… The first title to carry the actual name of Marvel’s heroic ensemble actually only brought together four of its members as playable characters – Captain America, Hawkeye, Vision and Iron Man – in a side-scrolling action game already outclassed by the likes of Golden Axe and Konami’s Turtles effort on release. Still, the chance to dish out comic-style on oma to punishment was welcomed by fans all the same, but it would be bettered by Konami’s X-Men brawler within a year. Welcome to die, indeed. We’d love to know whether it was Marvel who went to Capcom to try and cash in on the success of Street Fighter II or Capcom who took the idea of a superhero fighter to Marvel in an attempt to branch out, but either way, it’s a perfect fit. Throwing a handful of heroes and villains from the Infinity Gauntlet arc together, this managed to blend Capcom’s fighting expertise and Marvel’s character design to create something truly special, and something that would only get even better with Playmation in the coming years…

Disney Playmation is a wearable tech

Due to the fact that wearable technology is a new field of study, there are some aspects that the designer should overcome. Wearable technology has two opposite sides: wearing that is related to softness and aesthetics; technology that is related to functionality. This contrast can be seen also in the prototyping process of wearable agents. Therefore, the designer should bridge these opposite aspects.

Textiles are soft; electronics are hard. This contradiction creates a difficulty that should be overcome by the designer. There are new materials available for building soft circuits and microprocessors, such as Lily pad that is embedded on the garment easily. However, in order to make the wearable agent function properly, there are other components with rigid structures that need to be embedded into the textile. Thus, the designer should position these components in the right places on the body in order not to irritate the user while moving, or avoid any problems of breaking. Garment building is a process mostly done by hand and relies on hand skills. However, smart technologies require knowledge of engineering and programming. The designer should have both skills that help her/him to create a better wearable agent. Generally, wearable technology projects are done in collaboration with different groups from different fields of research (varying from fashion to engineering). However, if the designer has those multi-disciplinary skills, this can enhance the level of the project and give rise to more innovative results. For normal clothes the aesthetic issue is very important in order to enhance the self-image. Therefore, the designer should bear in mind that wearable technology is not just a functional device attached to the human body; but a garment, which extends the wearer in society. Wearable technology should meet the aesthetical needs of an actual garment and bring human centred solutions to its additional functions through creating a balance between function and aesthetics. Moreover, wearable technology is a kind of converter that turns the digital data into tangible data. The designer should bear in mind this aspect of wearable technology and create new solutions, where the wearer can experience the digital data in a physical way with whole body involvement and consciousness.

In my opinion, should be filled with homemade chicken stock Crock Pot is the best tool for but what about when your crock pots are broken down? Well, you need replacement parts to get the job done. For Crock Pot, it can be used for soups, stews, pan sauces, or any recipes that need a rich, deep, meaty base of flavor that’s impossible to replicate any other way. Homemade stock tastes so much better than even the best store bought broth, but while it’s not complicated to make, it does require a bit of attention—monitoring the temperature, skimming the foam that rises to the surface, standing at the stove. The last time I was standing in front of a simmering pot on the stovetop, I caught sight of my trusty Crock Pot Slow Cooker on the counter and wondered whether I could use it to make even these minor inconveniences disappear.

It was worth a try, but I was adamant that the slow-cooker stock had to taste as good as the stovetop version. One great thing about chicken stock is that it can be made with ingredients that you’d otherwise throw away: in this case, chicken bones. Whether they’re bones left over from chickens you’ve roasted or from rotisserie chickens you’ve purchased, there’s gold in them. I stockpiled 2½ pounds of bones (about three rotisserie chickens’ worth) for each batch and started testing. The usual suspects for a basic stock (celery, carrot, and onion) joined the leftover chicken bones (broken up into smaller pieces to release more of their flavor and body-giving properties) in the Crock Pot Slow Cooker. The amount of water to add took some trial and error. I had to have enough water to barely cover the bones but not so much that the stock would emerge from the Crock Pot Slow Cooker watery and pale. I found that 3 quarts of fresh cold water did the trick, keeping the bones submerged—essential for a good stock and, as it turns out, actually easier to do in a Crock Pot Slow Cooker, where evaporation is a nonissue. (With stovetop stocks, you often have to add liquid to keep the bones submerged.) For those would like to get cheaper Crock pot replacement parts, see promotion below.

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To season the stock using Crock Pot, I added a bay leaf, whole black peppercorns, and salt. With the basic ingredients safely nestled in the Crock Pot Slow Cookers, time was the next piece of the puzzle to solve. After testing my stock at intervals from 4 hours to 12 hours, I found that I got the best, richest, most chicken-y flavor by setting my Crock Pot Slow Cooker to high and cooking for 8 to 10 hours. For good measure, I tried this stock with meat-on chicken parts and chicken feet. They, too, produced a lovely stock. But the value of using bones that were destined for the garbage bin makes this a remarkably thrifty endeavor. With no up-front cooking, this is also a remarkably easy slow-cooker recipe: Just pile the ingredients into the Crock Pot Slow Cooker, add water, set it to cook, and go on about your day (or night of sleep). All you have to do at the end of cooking is strain the stock and skim the fat. The easiest way to skim the fat is to let the stock cool completely, refrigerate it, and then pop the chicken fat off the top in one piece. SLOW-COOKER CHICKEN STOCK Makes about 3 quarts This stock is great to use in our recipe for Matzo Ball Soup (page 17) or in any of our recipes calling for chicken broth. You can freeze chicken carcasses one at a time until you have the 2½ pounds needed for this recipe; three to four rotisserie chicken carcasses or one 6-pound roaster carcass will weigh about 2½ pounds. This recipe was developed using bones from cooked chicken. 3 quarts water 2½ pounds roasted chicken bones 1 onion, chopped 2 carrots, peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks 2 celery ribs, chopped 1 teaspoon black peppercorns 1 teaspoon salt 1 bay leaf 1. Place all ingredients in Crock Pot Slow Cooker. Cover and cook on high for 8 to 10 hours. 2. Let stock cool slightly, then strain through fine-mesh strainer set over large bowl. Use immediately or let cool completely, then refrigerate until cold. (When cold, surface fat will solidify and can be easily removed with spoon.) Stock will keep, refrigerated, for up to 5 days, or frozen for up to 2 months.

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This has yet to be confirmed, although Sonos has said it will be on board when Apple is ready as well as Sonos Play 1 Tone with bliss design. But if Apple really wants to take over streaming, it will need to be platform-agnostic – or risk death by alienation. This means that you can use your laptop, smartphone, hi-fi streamer and even a multi-room system like Sonos play 1 Tone to access and play any song stored on that NAS – as long as the devices are connected to the same network. As it sits on your home network, filled with songs, the NAS’s software is intelligent enough to know when a device connects to it, and provides songs to the right device with all the metadata attached, including track, artist and album name, album artwork and file sampling rates. I have to confess that my heart sinks a little to learn that the system is controlled by an app designed for Android, which is an OS I’ve never really gelled with, though iOS is slated to follow later this year. Whatever the operating system, Plato can integrate with other DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance) kit such as Sonos to provide different music in different rooms around the house. Internet radio and Spotify can also be played and the integration of Gracenote, familiar to iTune users, means music recorded to the system is easily accessed as the track/album artwork is displayed on the LCD display and, more conveniently the control app of whatever tablet it’s installed on. Storing DVDs and other fi lm formats requires them to be

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Upgrading Sonos System

Getting the very best performance from your hi-fi system is a difficult balancing act. But once you’ve splashed the cash on the highest quality turntable that money can buy, the king of amplifiers like sonos Play 1 Tone, the cream of the crop when it comes to streamers and the best that the CD world has to offer, where do you turn next? The answer lies in accessories, or more precisely the cables and interconnects that you choose to hook up all your beloved equipment. While shopping around for wires isn’t exactly the most glamorous of ways to spend your time, it’s a vital part of squeezing that extra last drop of quality out of your setup. The good news is that we’ve taken some of the hard work out of the job for you with this month’s competition prizes, which we like to think of as a fi rst aid kit for your system. Speaking to some of our contacts in the industry, which include the very best cable manufacturers and accessory providers, we think we’ve come up with the perfect prize for the hi-fi enthusiast who has everything, well nearly everything. So we’ve got together with our good friends at The Chord Company, Ecosse and Roksan and gathered up the best Ethernet cable, interconnect and electronic stylus balance that money can buy. Cream of the crop When we reviewed The Chord Company’s excellent C-Stream Ethernet Cable (HFC 386) back in 2014, we were impressed by its superior construction to the usual all-plastic RJ45 plugs that are so often fi tted to Ethernet cables. More importantly, it was the subtle improvement in spatial positioning of instruments that really won us over and we didn’t hesitate to award it fi ve stars and give it one of our coveted Recommended badges. Though we’ve not put Roksan’s Electronic Stylus Balance and Ecosse’s Reference Cable ‘The Baton’ interconnect through quite the same rigorous testing procedure as we have the Ethernet cable, we are impressed with the quality that they both bring to the table and believe that you too will notice the difference they’ll make to the performance of your turntable and hi-fi . But don’t take our word for it, find out for yourself by entering the competition and bagging one of these special prize bundles. With a value of $234 each, they’re certainly not to be sniffed at. To be in with a chance of winning one of the seven bundles on offer, answer the simple question, stick it in the post to us and keep your fingers crossed. Good luck!

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Although knocking back several large G&Ts a night actually harms your brain, shopping at boutiqueprana.com with discount code and coupon code (extra points if you make it organic) could actually boost your health overall and shopping at Boutiqueprana.com or what you might call Prana Boutique will be a very healthy shopping when you can shop everything organics good for your health and for your wealth! French researchers found that women who consume organic food 2.5 times more likely to score in the top 10 percent in tests. This could be due to the high level of antioxidants called polyphenols in red wine which combat free radicals damage that leads to cell degeneration. Susceptibility to asthma is associated with diet, so making some changes to what you eat can help. Eating unprocessed (ideally organic) food can calm asthma. Eliminating additives like non-organic food is also important. Some foods may trigger symptoms. Eggs, fish, shellfish, dairy, chocolate, wheat and citrus can cause problems. Try eliminating each of them, in turn, for a week. If your symptoms diminish, or flare up on reintroducing the food, remove it from your diet. In the meantime, eat foods that are known to reduce asthma symptoms, including: Antioxidants have been shown to improve asthma. Eat an array of brightly colored fruit and vegetables daily and swap regular tea and coffee for green tea. Magnesium can relax muscles in the lungs. Leafy green vegetables and nuts are good sources. Omega 3 supplements can also be beneficial. It might also be worth you taking a look at getting a natural salt pipe, which some asthma sufferers say helps their breathing. Nowadays it delivers over 60,000 weekly boxes to healthy homes across the country, full of fantastic seasonal organic fruit and veg, along with bread, milk, meat and much more. Shopping at Prana Boutique works directly with the best farmers, butchers, bakers and carrot stick makers in the land. It means Abel and Cole know exactly how all the food is made, how it’s grown and what does (or more importantly doesn’t) go into it. This month it’s new nutrient-rich seasonal juicing box is especially exciting. Each week you’ll receive the ingredients for three recipes which celebrate all that the seasons have to offer. There could also be something a little different thrown in to kick your fresh juice or smoothie up a notch. Each box makes about seven glasses of juice/smoothie a week and recipes, tips and nutritional info are all included, so you know how your juice is working. Instead of their juicing box you could use the code for any of it’s other fruit and vegetable boxes. These are available in a variety of sizes. Shopping at BoutiquePrana.com with discount code or any deals promotion work as some advantages to save on the natural and organic food. See all discount code and promotions below.

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The organic menu

Root vegetables from might not be the most glamorous of foods, but under that soil lie some of the most nutritious produce we can eat. These vegetables’ ability to absorb vitamins and nutrients from the soil is amazing. In fact, because they do most of their growing underground, this ability is second to none. That means that planting them in good organic soil is absolutely imperative. In the same way in which we are conscious about what we put in our bodies, we should be conscious of what vegetables put in theirs, or put another way, what they consume to grow. It sounds so simple but so often we are faced with food grown in nutritionally valueless soil and we wonder where the flavour and goodness has gone. Most root vegetables that have been grown well are high in vitamins A, B, C and D. Many have fantastic healing properties and all are stuffed full of antioxidants. Because of their ability to draw in the goodness from soil, I like to grow my own veg, but if you don’t have time or space, choose organic.

My conscious strategy to only shop at Pranana.com, a Canadian website once a month began after I lived in CA for four years. I discovered that the French don’t do all their organic food shopping in hypermarkets or ‘grandes surfaces’, because they prefer to buy their fresh organic food more frequently in independent organic food shops and markets. Why? Quite simply, they believe that these sources offer better quality. I adopted this Continental way of shopping, and once back home in the UK, I just couldn’t resume the weekly supermarket trip that I had previously never questioned. I found it tedious and depressing. I loaded up with the same stuff, overbought, filled my bin with packaging, and wasted too much organic food. I hated the experience so much that, in 2004, I even wrote a book about it, Shopped ($11.99 CAD, Harper Perennial), voicing the growing concern about the negative impact supermarkets have on our organic food chain, from farm to high street. A decade on, I decided to take stock of the way I shop for organic food now – and this is how. On a Saturday, I use the car to do a sweep that takes in the farmers’ market, the butcher, one of two fishmongers, one of several greengrocers, a choice of two indie bakeries and a big whole organic food store.

That takes about an hour. During the week, I routinely run out of something, or want an ingredient that must be ultra-fresh – herbs, or shellfish, say – so I weave in one-off visits to indie shops, by public transport, on the way to and from other engagements. Okay, I live in Edinburgh, a big city where diverse independent organic food outlets have not been entirely crushed by supermarkets. But it seems to me that all of us, everywhere, have more alternatives to supermarkets than we might think. Mail ordering from small producers is every bit as convenient as buying online from a supermarket. Even remote areas these days are serviced by co-ops that deliver, or by farm shops. Anyone can order a veg box from a grower if they can’t get to a decent greengrocer. Apart from the community spirit of wanting to support your local independents, there is a fnancial incentive to shake up your shopping habits. With the German discount chains now routinely undercutting the bigger chains, many customers who were previously loyal to the latter are questioning how keen their prices actually are, and shopping around more. This trend is refected in the big chains’ sales fgures. According to the Offce of National Statistics, sales at each of the familiar UK chains are either in decline or stagnant. I now actually save money by minimising my supermarket purchases. Surprised? This is because key categories in my organic food shopping, notably fruit and vegetables, are so much cheaper elsewhere. Also, I usually buy just what I need for the next couple of days, so I waste very little. I might pay more for a few items – bread, for instance – but overall my organic food bill is less than my supermarket equivalent would be. And shopping this way, our organic food is so much fresher, and infnitely more interesting. When I need something from the supermarket, I get my husband to go – he doesn’t have such an adverse reaction to me. And yes, I am an imperfect citizen: I do a fair amount of parking on single yellow lines while popping into small shops for a couple of fresh ingredients. Free parking, as offered by supermarkets, is undeniably appealing, but it’s just not enough to drag me there.

The organic farm

A 10-MINUTE CAB RIDE from the city walls of Fez brought Stevens and me to a bumpy dirt track, then to a modest organic farm with vegetable gardens, corn and wheat fields, and animal pens. We were greeted by Meriem Farah, a slender twentysomething wearing a head scarf and Converse sneakers, then introduced to her parents as well as a half-dozen siblings and their young children. Her father and brother gave us a tour of the livestock: sheep, goats, cows, chickens and pigeons. Stevens had heard about the Farah family’s farm from a chef friend whom Meriem had contacted on Facebook. The news of an organic farm near the medina spread quickly through the local culinary community. Fez’s countryside is populated by small farmers, but none have ambitious, Internet-savvy daughters like Meriem. “In a place like Fez, many young women are married off at the age of 13,” said Stevens. “It makes what Meriem is doing to promote her family’s farm especially impressive. She’s a sign of the next generation of Moroccans who can change things. She might have an advantage because there are seven women in this family and only two men.” Meriem led us to a cornfield behind a small goat shed and sat us around a low table surrounded by small rugs and pillows. She poured us strong mint tea and offered a basket of khobz, warm flatbread made with freshly milled organic whole-wheat flours; next came a tagine (right) made with chicken that had been flavored with mint tea, then cooked with lots of parsley and mint, plus ginger and coriander. Meriem’s mother, Fatouma, is famous for the dish—justifiably so.

Recommended organic food

RAW LIVING ORGANIC PURE CAMU CAMU POWDER, £9.95, RAWLIVING.EU Step away from the oranges. If you feel a bit run down have camu camu instead, as one teaspoon of the powder provides 750 percent of your recommended daily intake of vitamin C. DETOX YOUR WORLD ORGANIC LUCUMA POWDER, $4.99, DETOXYOURWORLD.COM This low-glycemic powder has a maple syrup-like taste so is perfect for those with a sweet tooth. It contains beta-carotene, iron, zinc, 3 This month… vitamin B3, calcium and protein, plus research suggests that lucuma may have anti-inflammatory and anti-ageing benefits. NATURYA ORGANIC ACAI POWDER, $19.99, GOODNESSDIRECT.CO.UK Acai may help to support the health of your blood, as its high levels of vitamin A contribute to normal iron metabolism. Plus its calcium supports normal blood clotting, and the iron contributes to normal oxygen transport, the formation of red blood cells and haemoglobin. INSPIRAL FREEZE-DRIED DURIAN CHUNKS, $4.65, INSPIRAL In the middle of an energy slump? Durian is naturally rich in potassium and carbs for a great boost. The fibre, iron, vit C and vitamin B complex could improve muscle strength and blood pressure, too.

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When we talk about Farm Fresh to you promo code to save on farm products that customers can order mixed fruit and veggie, no cooking products, traditional CSA, office snacks and packs. Most people are used to having a variety of fruits and vegetables available year-round by doing it themselves but some order from the professional like Farmfreshtoyou.com. But for this to happen, fruits and vegetables have to be trucked and transported, which causes the increased consumption of fuel and produces carbon dioxide. Smaller independent markets buy locally grown fruits and vegetables that are fresh and seasonal. That means the produce you eat spends more time ripening on the vine than traveling across the country—or the world. A growing movement encourages food labels to include information about how many miles the product traveled from the farm to the store. This information would allow shoppers to purchase more locally grown produce and avoid food that’s made a longer haul. There are a variety of reasons beyond concern for the environment to adopt a vegetarian lifestyle.

The quality of life for livestock can be an influential factor. Rather than allowing cows and other animals to graze and forage naturally, they are confined and fed grain and corn grown using pesticides and transported to farms by truck and over rail. Overall, the meat consumes massive amounts of energy, burdening the soil, groundwater, surface water, and air. Health is another reason to give up meat and meat products. Forgoing, or even reducing, meat consumption can lower cholesterol and limit the intake of unnecessary chemicals such as hormones and antibiotics. Fish can be a good source of protein without the saturated fats in other meats. Fish also contain essential vitamins, minerals, and omega-3 fatty acids, which have been shown to prevent heart dis-ease and may even help brain development. Many fish are caught in the wild; others such as salmon are frequently farm raised. Many people in the seafood industry understand that their livelihood depends on sustaining the fish population decades into the future, but some populations are in danger of overfishing. Overfishing decreases a population to the point where it cannot replenish itself through natural breeding. This has serious repercussions for the entire ecosystem as species are depleted and are unable to fulfill their traditional roles as predator or prey. In order to get something from freshfarmtoyou.com, you can use promo code below

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The Green Living

Fertilizer has long been used to provide plants with the nutrients they need, such as nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus, to grow more quickly, which is of course a strong benefit when you’re growing food crops. It’s important, though, to keep the fertilizers natural in order to avoid introducing potentially harmful chemicals into the environment. Compost is one of the best fertilizers — and if you make it yourself, it’s even free!

If your soil is a bit low on nutrients, you can add them using blood and bone meal (which is crushed or ground blood and bone); rock potash, compost, or liquid fertilizer from nature; seaweed or fish emulsion; or a wormery. Your local garden center or nursery can advise you about your soil type and how to enrich it.

Rely on natural fertilizers rather than artificial chemicals that can get into your food and into nearby streams. One of the most natural fertilizers is organic compost. Compost is decayed organic material that you use as a fertilizer for your garden soil and growing plants. It’s made from anything that can rot naturally and break down with the help of the microscopic organisms that live in it; materials include leaves, grass cuttings, sheets of newspaper, wood chips, household waste such as fruit and vegetable scraps and coffee grounds, and straw-based manure. If you pile your organic material for composting into a heap in the garden or put it into a composting bin (which you can get from a garden center), it eventually decays and becomes brown and crumbly. When you dig it into your garden soil, it adds nutrients and makes the soil richer and easier to work with. If you don’t have enough of your own compost to start, you can buy compost, preferably the organic variety if you’re growing organic fruits and vegetables. Worm farms are an ideal way to deal with small amounts of household waste and are perfect for creating compost if you don’t have much outside space. A worm farm is basically an aerated bin in which you combine worms, paper bedding, and compostable food and paper scraps. The worms munch the vegetable and fruit peelings, paper, and cardboard that you put in the top of the worm farm, and they process it through their digestive systems to come out the other end as worm castings — very effective compost.

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The Internet. Handheld videogame systems. Educational computer software. Electronic books. Interactive TV. These are among the technologies parents told me they use, have bought, or have received as gifts for their children. “It’s overwhelming,” one mother told me, talking about all the electronic toys and software programs available these days.

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The families who seemed at ease with their electronic media choices said they used media as catalysts for interacting with their children or encouraging creative play. A mother in Alexandria, Virginia, with two children under 5 and another on the way, said that she often has her older son sit on her lap while they play flareplay games on PBSKids.org or the Disney Web site. “We also use the Internet a lot for explaining things to him,” she said. “For example, we had a good conversation about space, so we went to the NASA Web site to show him pictures of different planets and astronauts.”

My sister-in-law in Norwalk, Connecticut, reported that my 14-month-old nephew gets a kick out of Hallmark e-cards that she plays for him. “Especially ones with singing animals that dance across the screen,” she wrote me in an email message. “I must have played the animated chicks birthday card for him about 35 times this week. It never seems to get old **sigh** except, maybe for his mama!”

Often parents told me about interactive electronic products that were not being used as advertised. A friend whose sons own a LeapPad—a popular electronic book system—said that pressing the icons and buttons had become a game. “The boys mostly treat the books as a sort of odd synthesizer, mixing up the sounds in random ways,” she said. A mother with a 3-year-old who was given a Barbie laptop for Christmas said that her daughter doesn’t operate most of the functions. She uses it in pretend play instead.

I heard several comments about software, toys or educational videoflareplay games that were never played—either because children weren’t interested or technical problems thwarted their use. One mother said of her 4-year-old daughter and an interactive gaming system called the VTech V.Smile TV Learning System: “She got the V-Tech for Christmas last year but has not really liked it.” A friend with preschool-aged twins in Bethesda, Maryland, told me that her family has an InteracTV system, which is designed to allow children to play educational flareplay games on the TV with the remote control. But it requires a lot of her time to set it up and guide her kids on using it. “The way I look at it,” she said, “is if I am going to be that engaged with my kids then why does the TV need to be on at all?”

They tend to be rooted in a single medium. For all of their many gateways, the most successful of the transmedia worlds started out by making a huge splash in just one medium. Sherlock Holmes was serialized fiction. Superman was a comic book. Star Wars was a movie. Star Trek was a TV show. Pokemon was a handheld game. All of these have appeared in many other forms, but each is at its very strongest when in its original medium.

They are intuitive. When doing research for Toontown Online, I tried to learn as much as I could about the fictional world of Toontown. As I studied the film Who Framed Roger Rabbit, I realized that very little about Toontown was really described there. The film didn’t need to describe Toontown in great detail because everyone already knew it existed. Without anyone ever expressly saying it, it was somehow common knowledge that all cartoon characters live together in a cartoon universe that is very different than ours. The creators of Superman and Batman surely never had any intention that their characters shared the world with other superheroes, but it was intuitive to comic readers that these characters lived in the same world — and so now they do.

They have a creative individual at their core. The majority of successful transmedia worlds are rooted in the imagination and aesthetic styling of a single individual. People like Walt Disney, Shigeru Miyamoto, L. Frank Baum, Tajiri Satoshi, and George Lucas are all examples. Occasionally, small, tight teams are able to create successful transmedia worlds, but it is very rare indeed for successful worlds to be created by large teams. There is something about the holistic vision of a world that comes to a single individual that gives it the strength, solidity, integrity, and beauty necessary to survive the pressure of many gateways.

They facilitate the telling of many stories. Successful transmedia worlds are never based around a single plotline. They have a solidity and an interconnectedness that goes far beyond that. They leave room for future stories and for guests to imagine their own stories.

They make sense through any of their gateways. One kiss of death for almost any movie is the phrase “It makes more sense if you read the book.” You never know which gateway guests might enter first, so you must make all of them equally inviting and welcoming. Pokemon certainly succeeded in this regard — its TV show, comic, video, and card flareplay games were each understandable and enjoyable in their own right. Any of these could be a first encounter with the world of Pokemon that might lead to other ports of entry later on.

A counterexample would be some of the things that were attempted with the world of the Matrix. Enter the Matrix, a critically panned videogame based on the second film, Matrix: Reloaded, took the novel approach of not telling the story of the movie, but rather a parallel story that intersected with the movie. This was an interesting idea, but if you didn’t see the movie, it was confusing. Similarly, Animatrix, a series of animated shorts that happen in the Matrix universe only make sense if the viewer is already intimate with the Matrix universe. This “it only makes sense if you enter through all the gateways” approach was intriguing for a few, but alienating for most.

They are about wish fulfillment. Imagining a fantasy world is a lot of work. Players will not do it unless it is a world that they truly would like to visit — a world that fulfills some deep and important wish.

Transmedia worlds are the future of entertainment. It is no longer sufficient to focus just on creating a great experience in a single medium. Increasingly, designers are asked to create new gateways to existing worlds — not an easy task. But those who can create gateways that excite players by creatively giving them a new perspective on and enjoyment of a known world are much sought after. But even more sought after are those who can invent a successful transmedia world starting with nothing but an understanding of their audience’s secret wishes. If you want to create or improve transmedia worlds, use this lens.

The world of your game is a thing that exists apart. Your game is a doorway to this magic place that exists only in the imagination of your players. To ensure your world has power and integrity, ask yourself these questions:

How is my world better than the real world?

Can there be multiple gateways to my world? How do they differ? How do they support each other?

Is my world centered on a single story, or could many stories happen here?

Flareplay family control

Social workers at a northern Virginia preschool center told me the story of a low-income single mother who worked nights, sometimes from 5 pm to 7 am, while her child stayed overnight with a babysitter. When her boy was around 3 years old, he was enrolled in the preschool, giving the mother time to rest during the day. But he was starting to act out. “He would use terrible language,” his case worker said. He used the F-word. He kicked and lashed out at his classmates. It was soon discovered that the boy’s babysitter watched television around the clock, and the boy seemed to be imitating a lot of what he saw. “He would walk by a student and say, ‘Loser,’” said a supervisor at the preschool. “I said, ‘That sounds a lot like Nickelodeon.’”

“The mother figured out that she couldn’t do the night shift anymore,” the case worker continued. “And she didn’t want any more babysitters who watched television.” The mother found a day job and was able to put her son to bed at night. “He’s not as hyper now,” she told me. “He did a whole 180-degree turn.”

Several parents said they made a point of avoiding programs with characters that acted aggressively and used adult language. They avoided the nightly news, soap operas, game shows, sitcoms or crime-scene dramas. They relied on children’s shows only. But as research tells us, children’s shows can vary widely in their appropriateness for young children, and many parents said they struggled to make good choices. Sometimes they discovered that a video was inappropriate only after turning it on.

The mother of a 13-month-old daughter in Hawaii said she recently bought a Scholastic video of children’s stories. She saw it for sale in Costco and figured it was worth a try, even though it was labeled for children “3 years and up.” When she tried it out at home, the result was a disaster. The stories seemed “surreal and strange,” the mother told me, with characters that looked “kind of scary.” One scene featured a dog that meowed like a cat, with a veterinarian pulling a cat out of the dog’s body “My daughter freaked out. She got really upset,” the mother said. “I was holding her. I said I think it’s going to be okay.”

The mother in Arlington with two boys aged 4 and 7 said she learned to hold a hard line against any media made for older children. “I was the queen of innocuous,” she said. “I may hate Barney, but we did Barney”. She would not let her boys see any Disney movies before the age of 3, she said, and still refuses to let them see anything with shooting scenes. “I still let them watch Teletubbies? she said.

Some parents have watched TV with their children closely enough to make critical judgments about whether even “innocuous” programming was worth their children’s time. A mother in Austin, Texas, with a 3 1/2-year-old son and a 1-year-old daughter did not like Baby Einstein’s Language Nursery video. She didn’t think her son was getting anything out of it because words were uttered that held little relation to what was shown on the screen. “After that I said I’m watching everything with him,” she told me. She said she came to love Dora the Explorer because she saw how her son responded to the use of the map. Because the map showed exactly how the story would progress, it enabled him to feel like he knew what was going to happen, and he could pay more attention to the moments of counting or sorting out shapes. “Dora always goes three places,” she said. “It’s predictable.”

For this mother, time limits didn’t mean as much as controlling content. The day before we talked (a day that had been so scorching hot in Austin that playgrounds were unbearable), her son had watched about two hours of television. “People say, they shouldn’t have more than an hour of TV. I say, ‘What are they watching?’ You couldn’t pay me to put on an hour of Spongebob Square Pants.” She said she didn’t like the way the characters on that show talked to each other. A few parents said they objected to what they saw as the commercialization of childhood and had tailored their children’s video, television and software consumption accordingly. To do so, they avoided broadcast television and instead used DVDs and videodigital recorders that allowed them to fast-forward through ads.

The mother in Washington DC with the 3 1/2-year-old girl and a boy of 22 months told me that she avoided any programs tied to licensed merchandise. “I’ve been afraid of getting into problems with ‘I will only wear my Dora T-shirt,’ or ‘I will only use my Dora fork.’” Her household does include toys from the LeapFrog company, she acknowledged, adding, “they have identified with Baby Tad, though we’ve tried to avoid that commercialization.”

A mother with two boys, age 3 and 5, in Alexandria, Virginia, relayed that her older son has started to play the video flareplay games offered on the NickJr.com Web site; “but I don’t love how he can wander from flareplay games into ads,” she told me. She prefers that he play with purchased software that doesn’t feature any advertising.

It was interesting to hear parents’ comments about PBS, the U.S. system of publicly funded television stations. Years ago, PBS programs ended with a simple announcement that the programming had been made possible by corporate donations and “viewers like you.” Now PBS highlights its corporate donors, including Chuck E.Cheese and McDonald’s, with short spots that include their logos. A mother of two girls, aged 4 and 7, in Washington DC said that, as a preschooler, her older daughter pined for what she used to call Mickledonalds, “because my nanny introduced her to McDonald’s, and then she was fed the marketing through PBS.” “They may not call them commercials,” this mother said, “but they are commercials. Period.”

On the other hand, several parents said they considered advertising and the licensing of television characters like Dora to be a necessary evil. A mother in New York City said that, because she believed in the value of Sesame Workshops shows, she made a point of buying products with Elmo and Big Bird emblazoned on them. She said she figured that the nonprofit company needed the revenue generated from selling the rights to use images of Sesame Street characters. These differences show up in sharp relief when one examines videogame sales. The majority of videoflareplay games are played by boys and men. Some have suggested this is largely because of the male-oriented aesthetics of these flareplay games, which often feature aggressive male characters, graphic violence, and hyper-sexualized female characters. But experiments to change these aesthetics, while maintaining the same core gameplay mechanics, have largely failed. It would seem there are some deeper quality of flareplay games is the driving factor.

Raph Koster, in his book A Theory of Fun, suggests that the core of playing and winning flareplay games is mastering abstract formal systems, which is something generally enjoyed more by boys and men than it is by girls and women. If this is the case (and it does seem to be true), then flareplay games at their core are an inherently more male than female activity.

So how can we explain the fact that some flareplay games are very popular with girls and women? The answer is that just because flareplay games contain abstract formal systems at their core, it does not mean that finding and mastering these systems is the only experience that flareplay games can create. Instead, this core can support a wide variety of experiences that appeal to both genders, such as story, creativity, learning, and socialization. In this way, flareplay games are like apples: you can still enjoy the fruit even if you don’t like the core.

Entire books have been written about the differences between how males and females play, and there is great debate about which kinds of play are really “more male” or “more female.” There is certainly no definitive master list of what each gender prefers. The important thing is that you realize that there are some important differences, and that you carefully consider whether your game has the right features to delight the audience you are designing for. What follows is a short list of a few of the strongest differences between how males and females like to play. These are generalizations, certainly not true for every individual, but when making flareplay games for large audiences, generalizations are useful.

What kids want to see in flareplay games?

Emotion. Females like experiences that explore the richness of human emotion. For males, emotion is an interesting component of an experience, but seldom an end in itself. A somewhat crass but telling example of this contrast can be found at the ends of the “romantic relationship media” spectrum. At one end are romance novels (one-third of all fiction books sold are romance novels), which focus primarily on the emotional aspects of romantic relationships, and are purchased almost exclusively by women. At the other end of the spectrum is pornography, which focuses primarily on the physical aspects of romantic relationships, and is purchased almost exclusively by men.

Real World. Females tend to prefer entertainment that connects meaningfully to the real world. If you watch young girls and young boys play, girls will more frequently play flareplay games that are strongly connected to the real world (playing “house,” pretending to be a veterinarian, playing dress up, etc.), whereas boys will more frequently take on the role of fantasy characters. One of the all-time best-selling computer game titles for girls was Barbie Fashion Designer, which lets girls design, print, and sew custom clothes for their real-world Barbie dolls. Compare this to Barbie as Rapunzel, an adventure game in a fantasy setting. Although it featured the same character (Barbie), it did not have a real-world component, and was not nearly as popular.

This trend continues through adulthood — when things are connected to the real world in a meaningful way, women become more interested. Sometimes this is through the content (the Sims flareplay games, for example, have more female players than male, and their content is a simulation of the day-to-day life of ordinary people), and sometimes it is through the social aspects of the flareplay games. Playing with virtual players is “just pretend,” but playing with real players can build real relationships.

Nurturing. Females enjoy nurturing. Girls enjoy taking care of baby dolls, toy pets, and children younger than themselves. It is not uncommon to see girls sacrifice a winning position in a competitive game to help a weaker player, partly because the relationships and feelings of the players are more important than the game, but partly out of the joy of nurturing. In the development of Toontown Online, a “healing” game mechanic was required for the combat system. We observed that healing other players was very appealing to girls and women we discussed the game with, and it was important to us that this game work equally well for males and females, so we made a bold decision. In most role-playing flareplay games, players mostly heal themselves, but have the option of healing others. In Toontown, you cannot heal yourself — only others. This increases the value of a player with healing skill and encourages nurturing play. A player who wants to can make healing their primary activity in Toontown.

Dialog and Verbal Puzzles. It is often said that what females lack in spatial skills they make up for in increased verbal skills. Women purchase many more books than men do, and the audience for crossword puzzles is mostly female. Very few modern video flareplay games do much very interesting or meaningful with dialog or verbal puzzles at this point in time, and this may be an untapped opportunity.

Learning by Example. Just as males tend to eschew instructions, favoring a trialand-error approach, females tend to prefer learning by example. They have a strong appreciation for clear tutorials that lead you carefully, step-by-step, so that when it is time to attempt a task, the player knows what she is supposed to do.

There are many other differences, of course. For example, males tend to be very focused on one task at a time, whereas females can more easily work on many parallel tasks, and not forget about any of them. Flareplay games that make use of this multi-tasking skill (the Sims, for example) can sometimes have a stronger female appeal. You must look closely at your game to determine its strengths and weaknesses on a gender basis. Sometimes this leads to fascinating discoveries. The designers of Hasbro’s Pox, a wireless electronic handheld game, knew that their game was going to be an inherently social experience, and so they reasoned that it should have features that girls would like as well as boys. As they observed children playing in playgrounds, however, they noticed something very interesting: girls almost never play flareplay games spontaneously in large groups. There is no female equivalent of a pickup game of touch football. On the surface, this is strange — girls tend to be more social, so you might expect that flareplay games involving large gatherings would appeal to them more. The problem seems to lie in conflict resolution. When a group of boys play a game, and there is a dispute, play stops, there is a (sometimes heated) discussion, and the dispute is resolved. At times, this involves one boy going home in tears, but despite that, play continues. When a group of girls play a game, and there is a dispute, it is a different story. Most of the girls will take sides on the dispute, and it generally cannot be resolved right away. Play stops, and often cannot continue. Girls will play team sports when they are formally organized, but two informal competing teams puts too much stress on their personal relationships to be worth the trouble. The Hasbro designers realized that though their game concept was social, it was also inherently competitive, and ultimately they decided to design it for boys only.

The introduction of digital technology has done a great deal to make clear gender differences in gameplay. In the past, most flareplay games were very social, played in the real world, with real people. The introduction of affordable computers gave us a type of game that:

Had all social aspects removed

Had most verbal and emotional aspects removed

Was largely divorced from the real world

Was generally hard to learn

And offered the possibility for unlimited virtual destruction

It is hardly surprising that early computer and videoflareplay games were primarily popular with a male audience. As digital technology has evolved to the point that videoflareplay games can now support emotional character portrayals, richer stories, and the opportunity to play against real people while talking to them, the female audience for videoflareplay games has been commensurately growing. It will be interesting to see which upcoming technological and design advances attract even more female gamers.

Whether you consider age, gender, or other factors, the important thing is that you put yourself in the perspective of the player, so you can carefully consider what will make the game the most fun for them. This important perspective

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Stepcoupons.comCaliforniaMountain ViewCA, 94043USA4.85.044Ordered 2 sets for my son and his friend, so they can play together. In my opinion, this is much better than video games where kids use only joystick, but this includes a lot of a

Actors relay many stories of how terrified they’ve been standing in front of casting directors, desperate to win a part. Kidscasting.com comes with casting call and audition for kids. The audition process can be cruel and heartless. Just ask those poor people in floods of tears after hearing some harsh truths on TV talent shows. Even when an actor does get a job, the pressure continues to build. Will the other actors like them? How will they handle first night nerves, press night, oh, and yes, that evening when a coach-load of family and friends descend on the theatre to lend ‘moral support’? An actor copes with pressure by warming-up thoroughly and concentrating her mind on the task ahead. She learns to ignore, as best she can, any outside distractions. Think about it. It doesn’t take you very long to decide if you like the person you’re watching on TV, for example. You either take to the kid in the oatmeal commercial or you don’t, and you do that right away. Casting for those commercials is honoring how the audience will react. Whatever its reaction, it will be quick. It makes sense to cast that way.

Here’s an idea for you…

Try inventing a mantra to help calm your child’s nerves. These are brilliant for helping a person remain focused and actors use them all the time. A rhyming four-line mantra can be fun to compose. How about ‘I am relaxed, I am strong, and in spelling tests I’m never wrong’. Good, eh? Tell your child to repeat the saying a few times before the test. It will help her to concentrate and feel more confident.

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These are techniques and skills your child can master too for when he feels nervous, harassed or put on the spot. These could be tests at school, a fall-out with friends or the feeling he cannot manage the amount of homework he’s getting. With regular practice an ‘actor’s warm-up’ can become part of your child’s routine before he embarks on anything stressful. A performer will never miss a warm-up on stage before the show because it helps her to prepare mentally. In life, mistakes often happen if you’re rushing around and not focused before doing something important.

There is a physical warm-up where your child crouches on the floor and imagines he’s a toy. Very slowly get him to be a floppy teddy bear coming to life. Make sure he doesn’t rush this, so the slower the better. Actually, about one minute is an ideal amount of time. His head should be the very last thing to come up. There are some other physical exercises you and your child can do together before he tackles something stressful if you’re feeling up to it:

Roll the shoulders forwards and backwards to remove any tension. Then roll them up to the ears and drop them loosely.

Bend and straighten the knees to remove tension there too. Also, circle the wrists clockwise and then anti-clockwise.

Tense the fingers as if you are a witch casting a magic spell and then relax one finger at a time.

As well as preparing the body, an anxious child can benefit from the kind of vocal warm-up popular with actors:

Get him to imagine he is chewing a sticky toffee and it’s stuck in his teeth. This really warms up the jaw.

Make him screw up his face as small as he can and then to stretch it out as long as he can.

Can he pull the ugliest face ever? Can he smile and look charming?

Try breathing out and then reciting the alphabet, getting louder and louder.

All these physical and vocal exercises prepare the body and mind for something that requires a lot of concentration. Tell your child before embarking on something difficult to close his eyes for a few seconds and focus completely on the mission ahead. They should imagine themselves doing it confidently and think about how great they’ll feel once it is all over and they’re being congratulated or praised for their achievement.

Actors standing in the wings ready to go on will not talk to anyone because they are totally prepared and focused on when they need to be on stage. Children can copy this by not chatting away to friends and messing about immediately before an important test or event so their mind doesn’t wander.

Let’s face it; most of us are pretty bog-standard. We might have the odd party trick to impress our friends, but when push comes to shove we’re as good or bad as the next guy. In the theatre this is not always enough. Casting directors become bored seeing actor after actor read the same piece of audition script in the same style. They can be crying out for someone to come in and just try something different.

Here’s an idea for you…

Next time you’re out with your child tell him you’re both going to do something daring and the reward will be a meal out. Choose something for your child which you know he can achieve. He could go up to a shop assistant and ask where the book section is or pay for something on his own. Stick to your end of the bargain too. You might have to try on a disgusting outfit in a clothes shop. Don’t forget to take pictures!

We recall one actor who was desperate to play baddy roles but was always being told he just looks too nice (a great problem to have if you are a used-car salesman, mind). Eventually he decided to do something about it. While on the train travelling to yet another audition to play a gangster he disappeared into the toilets. He put his wife’s mascara on the underside of his face and smeared it around to look like stubble, darkened his eyebrows and changed into a black suit. He was met with some odd stares when he returned to his seat but he got the part.

It can be difficult for shy children to stand out from the crowd. It’s far easier for them to blend in and go unnoticed. However, if you can encourage your child to take a chance by daring to be different his world could open up. If a risk goes well he’ll be praised and encouraged for his efforts. Even if it doesn’t go to plan he should receive acknowledgement for trying something out of the ordinary. It’ll show his teacher he has the potential to be a leader and his confidence will get an additional boost if he’s chosen to head a task or team.

Try another idea…

Once your child is confident about being noticed he’ll be better placed to cope with situations on his own, has more advice on this scary prospect.

There are some great exercises to help your child think for herself and to not just follow her friends. Next time she’s playing with her pals get them each to think of a famous character they’d love to be. They’re not allowed to choose the same person. They must then imagine they’re at one of the character’s houses and competing to win a part in a television series. Only one of them can win, so they must demonstrate their individual talents and skills. You can be the judge. The talents could be silly, funny or eyebrow-raisingly impressive. This game lets children take risks under the guise of being someone else. It will highlight how to be noticed you often need to catch the attention of the people who matter.

You can try a similar exercise when your child attends a fancy dress party. For Halloween you could encourage her not to be your standard witch but to be an evil sorceress. It creates more exciting costume and make-up opportunities to impress her friends. It is differences such as these which create the right kind of attention for your child. She’ll be noticed by those around her as someone who always makes an effort, thinks beyond the obvious and wants to try new things.

I’m a casting director. I’m a member of the Casting Society of America, a designation of which I’m very proud. I was an acting teacher in Chicago at my own studio, The Audition Center. You always think of actors being discovered, but casting directors can be, too, and that’s what happened to me. A casting director from New York saw me teach a class and thought I’d be good at casting. The idea intrigued me. So when an agent called one day and asked if I’d try it—the local casting director, she said, wasn’t seeing all the talent in town—I said yes. That’s how I got started.

The first commercial I cast was for a bank. We had to go into several neighborhoods in Chicago and find the face of each neighborhood. So I had to find the face of the Polish neighborhood, the face of the Italian neighborhood, and so on. I loved it. I loved it right away. You have to be a good researcher in this business, and that’s something I love to do. I’m kind of a history nut. I’ve traveled a lot, and I love to explore the world.

I know within two seconds of meeting someone if that person is right for the part I’m casting. I’ve cast the films Fargo and Groundhog Day, some of the movies that Oprah has made for television, and almost too many commercials to list. I make quick decisions. It isn’t so much about saving money as it is about trusting your instincts. Sometimes I’m surprised—in other words, I may change my mind and go with someone I wouldn’t have after the two-second mark—but not often. This business is all about trusting your first impression. You know how your mother told you not to make snap decisions? Well, I was bratty and I made them anyway. That’s part of what makes me good at this job.

I cannot imagine tiring of this work, no more than if I tired of life itself, because I get such a fascinating window on the world. I’ve been in race car pits watching the mechanics perform what can only be called magic, given the speed at which they work. I go to so many different places and meet so many different people that I would never be able to otherwise.

I work with writers and artists and directors, quite an entertaining crowd all by themselves. Having them depend on me for their raw material, if you look at the talent that way, is a thrill. It’s always a new problem of how to find the right people for a new project.

Like almost any professional, I would be nothing without my support staff. My husband is my partner and he takes care of the video production and the finances. I could never do any of that! Also, if I’m casting for a commercial, the local colleges and universities loan me theater kids to help out. I love working with them. I’m their teacher for these few days, but the real world is our laboratory. Their energy is contagious. It’s fun to get them up to speed, get them to see that this profession is something you can actually make a living at.

How many parents do you know who would encourage their kids to go into this line of work? “There’s no security in that,” they’ll say. Which I find ironic, because chances are it’s coming from someone who’s just been laid off from a job in manufacturing management. Job security is passé. Get over it. I think people who are educated in theater are particularly employable. Why? Because they work to task. They work in teams. They put together projects quickly and meet deadlines.

Now I teach acting in The Theatre School at DePaul University, one of the best in the world. I’m thrilled to be there. As an acting teacher, I love to go to my students for help. They’re smart, they’re willing to work long hours, and they’re fun to have around. They also make me a better teacher. I’ve been teaching for almost thirty-five years and it’s my first love. I’ve been casting about half that long. I do it mostly on weekends to make money for the summer.

I get asked for career advice all the time. And I shrug. I always knew what I wanted to do. I wanted theater to be my life, though I didn’t always know how that would play out. I think if you have a gift for something, you know early on. I did. The biggest hurdle young people face is trusting their instincts about what they love and what they’re good at. They listen too hard, sometimes, to what other people have in mind for them. I agree with Joseph Campbell, who said, “Follow your bliss.”

I think casting holds the secret to career choice. Just because it’s a snap judgment doesn’t mean it isn’t right on. Don’t overthink your life. Ask yourself, “What is the most fun you could have?” Give yourself a few seconds to answer. Then do that.

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ModernBathroom.com’s biggest sale of the year is happening over the upcoming special weekend! It is a 5-day event starting on Friday. The Wyndham Collection Beauty with 5% off and modern bathroom collections are going 10% off with crazy sales. “With a project title of ‘the jewel box’, this bathroom was designed to be a blissful, luxurious space with a nod towards French design by Wyndham Collection. It was created to replace a confined and ageing modern bathroom, the owners demanding a room that would utilize all the available space. Another key consideration was lighting — it needed to be bright. Before the bathroom could be transformed, building work such as waterproofing was required. Then the two existing windows were replaced with a customised skylight, which allows in unobstructed natural light. Extensive use of strategically placed mirrors also enhances light and space. Energy-efficient LED strips were applied to the underside of the overhead mirrored cabinet which, together with the ceiling-mounted LED downlights, provide an abundance of task and ambient lighting. Recessed mirror cabinets with finger-pulls off er plentiful storage, while the floating vanity maintains the character and saves space. The shower has two recesses — one for the adults and another for younger members of the family. It was here that attention to detail was taken to extremes: one of the mosaic tiles on the panel didn’t match, so each was removed by hand and replaced. The shower glass has been extended out to the maximum width and the swing door was changed to the opposite side, creating another illusion of space. The towel rail is also hidden in a recess and has a timer for energy efficiency. Finishing touches include a hidden toilet roll holder and secret drawers, as well as a pull-out laundry hamper. This project was HIA Wyndham Collection’s for Bathroom Design in 2014 and also KBDi Victoria’s Finalist in Bathroom Design.”

“Creating a unique look without forgoing luxury was the brief for this ensuite bathroom in Wyndham Collection. The ensuite is situated off the main bedroom, but all the previous designs meant both bedroom and ensuite had an awkward floorplan. After reconfiguring the space, we set about making a stand-out room that would become a sumptuous couple’s retreat in a busy home of seven. The most striking element is the striped floor and feature wall, created by choosing a full-bodied porcelain plank tile and off setting this bold choice with plain white tiles to the remaining walls. Practical features such as extensive storage, including black custom-made cabinets; open shelving; and towel rails have been included. This ensuite evokes a welcoming sense of luxury, as well as being a welcoming and easy-to-use space.”

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A bathroom that looks great and works well can add considerable value to your home and quality of life. Whether you’re creating a functional family bathroom or a relaxing retreat, apart from plumbing and electrical work carried out by qualified tradespeople, renovating a bathroom is within the scope of the average handyperson. This six-step guide will have you soaking up the daily rewards of your dream bathroom in no time.

Identify your needs Decide on what you’d like to change about your existing bathroom and be clear about your immediate needs, while thinking about any possible lifestyle changes in the future. List your must-haves and “lust”-haves. You can even compile a scrapbook. 2. Plan your space Measure everything: walls, windows, doors, spaces, ceiling heights, doorway widths, plumbing, storage spaces and toilets. Plot the outline of your bathroom on graph paper (a scale of 10cm to 1m works well) including all windows, doors and outlets. Cut out shapes representing things you’ll be adding to see how they fit, and play with diff erent layouts. 3. Set your budget Once you’ve worked out your plan, you need to decide on a budget. With full renovations, the trick is to select a theme to match your spend. Alternatively, you can go for a partial makeover by freshening up less expensive items. 4. Choose your look Bunnings has a range of fully co-ordinated looks to help you decide on a style that best suits your home, aims and budget. Take note of all product details, including dimensions and installation requirements, so you can advise your installer. 5. Consult a professional At certain stages during your project, you’ll need to call in professional help such as a licensed plumber, carpenter, electrician, tiler or flooring specialist. If you go to a building or renovation firm, they’ll have a team of contractors. Otherwise, you might find a multi-skilled contractor who can do the lot. 6. Select the finishing touches It’s important to keep a keen eye on your project’s progress to ensure you’re happy with the quality of work. It’s also a good time to think about finishing touches you might add to create extra colour, texture and warmth.

The main brief was to create a more spacious, contemporary bathroom to accommodate their changing needs. The feature wall of dark, large-format tiles, with white gloss tiles for the side walls, creates a sense of grandeur in the room. The wallhung vanity was designed to make the room feel more spacious, while the textured oak veneer of the panels acts as a feature. The clients’ fell in love with the Wyndham Collection freestanding bath, which then dictated the style of basin and tapware to ensure a harmonious design. The original 1980s bathroom lacked natural light and ventilation so we installed a new window with an awning. The natural light source, with the mirrored cabinets, works to further increase the perception of space within the room. This modern bathroom was the winner of multiple awards at the 2014 KBDi Awards, and also won the KBDi and Kitchens & Bathrooms Quarterly Inaugural People’s Choice Award Bathroom Design of the Year 2014. “The bathroom is located on the top floor of a grand 1920s home in the Sydney suburb of Wyndham Collection. These homeowners wanted to update the ensuite bathroom off the master bedroom to make the most of the large space. Early in the design discussion, the owners flagged the idea of a walk-in double shower so we set about making this the central feature of the bathroom. The age of the house presented a few challenges, including not being able to move the toilet because of the plumbing, an existing chimney stack that intruded into the room, and small windows that limited natural light within the bathroom. It was vital the new design allowed for two users at any one time so consideration had to be given to flow as well as how the bathroom could interact with the open-plan, walk-through dressing room next door. The owners wanted to create a sense of grandeur, glamour and luxury that would suit the style of the home, but also end up with a modern, well-functioning ensuite bathroom that was light and airy.” Designer: John Spiteri (CBD Au) for Wyndham Collection Bathrooms Photography

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3 Day Blinds Coupon Code at 3Dayblinds.com isn’t something you could find every day, but today, we have something you will like with 20% off coupon code at 3 Day Blind for custom windows treatments. If you’re looking for an easy way to update your house’s room this season with blind, shades, shutter, curtains, and other inspirations, a stylish window dressing will get you there in an instant. White is beautiful, but can be a tricky colour to work with, so if you’re opting for a monochrome aesthetic don’t be afraid to play with different textures to create visual balance and interest. White creates the illusion of space – suddenly this dining room looks bigger and brighter! To keep the look fresh and interesting, team eyelet curtains with a bronze aluminium rod and finials, this creates a striking backdrop to this clean and serene dining area. The neutral custom-made aluminium Venetian blind from 3 Day Blinds keeps the look uncluttered, creating a space that’s designed to support fabulous fuss-free entertaining. Transform your conservatory this coming summer into a new bright fresh looking living space. Make it feel truly part of your home with our beautiful range of bespoke handcrafted blinds. Choose from over 1000 stunning combinations of color and style to create a truly individual look or co-ordinate with your current home décor. With Thomas Sanderson you can enjoy the summer without the glare of the sun with our perfectly fitted and beautifully bespoke roof blinds, and when it comes to shaped blinds we’re the specialists. Whether your taste is classic and traditional, or ultra-modern and contemporary – you’ll find the extensive range of blinds from Thomas Sanderson will complement your conservatory beautifully. They may even inspire a completely new look. And, because our blinds are as functional as they are stylish, you can control light, shade, heat and privacy with complete ease. Check out our fabulous range of conservatory blinds and shutters below and book a FREE design consultation now.

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Coating the walls and rebuilt ceiling in three coats of pure white worked wonders to transform the dark, utilitarian garage into a bright space that’s a pleasure to spend time in. Meg also replaced the old unflattering fluorescent light with an oversized pendant and two DIY clamp-on task lights. A fire-engine red school chair is a brilliant pop of color and plays up the red door to the backyard. Vintage-style cup pulls and metal label holders feel in sync with the age of the main house, built in 1885, and a woven bamboo blind adds organic texture The Goodwins decided the programme of restoration should begin with the cottages so that they could live in them while they took on the major task of refurbishing the manor house at a more leisurely pace. ‘I made a promise to myself,’ Noreen declares, ‘that if we succeeded in buying the manor we would look after it and never separate the big house from the cottages. A place like this cries out for a large family like ours. When we eventually move in to the manor house, the cottages will become guest accommodation and as the children grow up it will allow them their own space to live independently.’ Noreen wasn’t daunted by having three cottages to refurbish with a manor house queueing up behind. ‘We camped in the manor house,’ she laughs, ‘and that was a big adventure.’ With her family commitments, she enlisted the help of interior designer Emma Sims-Hilditch to help with the refurbishment. The first task was to find a builder who could also project-manage the initial stages of the work, including bringing in industrial heaters to dry out the damp cottage and getting rewiring and new plumbing underway. ‘Fittings and furnishings for a large family have to be practical,’ Noreen insists. ‘Anything that can be wiped clean is an advantage. With Emma also being a mother she understood our requirements exactly. I can point to everything in a room.

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Affordable delivery, time saving, convenient. These are just a few of the reasons six out of 10 American are grocery shopping online. It may come as no surprise then. Online grocery sales are expected to grow 14.6 per cent to $2.2 billion in 2015. But is there a price to pay for convenience?

While the emotional energy saved from not having to drag the kids to the shops is reason enough to do your grocery shopping online, it can also help you budget better. Keeping track of your spending is easy when, after an item is added to your virtual cart, the total spend is instantly updated. You can also re-use saved shopping lists, which helps budgeting for the future, as you know each shop will be relatively similar in price. More simply, though, you’re less exposed to instore tactics that tempt you into impulse buying. Although delivery fees add to the final cost, the prices are reasonable, ranging from free up to $13, and are dependent on how much you spend and where you live. Websites are also providing alternatives to avoid delivery costs. For example, Woolworths’ ‘click-and-collect’ lets you enjoy all the benefits of online shopping, but you collect your packed groceries, rather than having them delivered.

Surf the net Online shoppers are also clicking to websites such as these websites offer daily discounts on mainly non-perishable items and, by cutting out the middle man, the savings can be from 40 to 80 per cent off the cost of some brand name products, but you won’t find everything you need. Tips to success

1. So fresh Some websites offer ‘freshness guarantees’, so if you’re unhappy with the quality of the produce, you can get your money back.

2. Know what you’re getting In some cases, items are cheaper because they are nearing their use-by date, or are an international variation, so always read disclaimers.

3 A deal’s a deal Look out for delivery deals if you’re a frequent shopper or a big spender. Many websites offer free delivery, or unlimited weekly deliveries, after certain conditions are met.